Psychedelics have entered the mainstream in a big way: Investors have staked billions on potential medical treatments, scientific research has skyrocketed and public sentiment signals growing acceptance.
And yet the major sources of data on drug use have big gaps when it comes to psychedelics, making it hard to gauge exactly how consumption is changing and in what ways.
Two reports out this week offer some much-needed data points on the public’s psychoactive preferences. Together, they suggest that psilocybin-containing mushrooms are now the most popular choice. And many people are opting to microdose, consuming a fraction of the usual dose, rather than taking a full trip.
“We’ve known that microdosing has become a cultural phenomenon, but all the surveys on drug use don’t ask about dosing,” says Eric Leas, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego, whose research was published on Friday in JAMA Health Forum.
That study tracked internet search history on microdosing – a proxy for public interest – finding about a 1,250% increase since 2015. And searches for psilocybin started to outpace LSD in 2019.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the non-partisan RAND Corporation estimates that about 3% of the American public – approximately 8 million adults – have used psilocybin in the past year, making it the most popular hallucinogen in 2023.
The fact that psilocybin use eclipsed other popular psychedelics came as a “surprise” to Beau Kilmer, who co-directs the RAND Drug Policy Research Center and was the lead author of the study, which was published this week.
The runner-up was MDMA, or ecstasy, at just over 1%, followed closely by LSD. The report was based on a nationally representative survey of about 4,000 people and explores the policy implications of changing attitudes around psychedelics.
Nearly half of those who tried psilocybin in the past year said they had elected to microdose, a trend that has caught on in many circles, including tech workers and suburban moms.
